Will the gutting of the B.C. Forest Service lead to privatization?

An article published by Focus Online is exposing the current emaciated state of the British Columbia Forest Service and questions if the gutting of the Forest Service has been plotted to allow privatization of the province's forests.

In the last 9 years, the number of Forest Service offices has been slashed from 42 down to 22.

In the last 8 years, 1004 Forest Service employees have been cut. Over half of these were district staff that were providing on-the-ground stewardship, forest management, recreation, monitoring, enforcement and compliance services.

Each remaining district office, with just a handful of field staff, is now responsible for over two million hectares. That is 1000 times more forest per forester than in the country of Sweden.

When putting together the article, the author found challenges when finding out just how many employees the Forest Service now employs. And beyond that, the provincial government decision to strip out a requirement for resource analysis reporting, it is difficult to find out what forest management activities are still being conducted.

No one knows anymore what forest land has been properly stocked, or what current inventory levels are, which must be making the calculation of annual allowable cuts a bit of a guessing game.

The mission of the B.C. Forest Service was once to manage, conserve, and protect the forest for sustainable use for the well-being of British Columbians.

Now the mission seems to have shifted to a business focus, with newly introduced language such as “To provide a superior service to resource stakeholders by supporting competitive business conditions” and gives priority to “Enhancing industry competitiveness” and “Identifying clear outcomes for investors.”

A new form of forest tenure has been introduced, called "commercial forest reserves", that are intended to allow companies to have long term access to forest for biofuel harvesting.

Why is the B.C. Forest Service changing so drastically? Could a loophole in the Kyoto Protocol to blame?

This is a must-read article:

The Big Burn by Briony Penn